Roy Skelton obituary

Roy Skelton with Zippy and George in 2002. ‘I used to love it when they had an argument,’ he recalled. Photograph: Connors Brighton

The stage was the first love of the actor Roy Skelton, who has died of pneumonia aged 79, five months after suffering a stroke, and his sense of theatre came out in the television voices of the Daleks in Doctor Who and the puppets Zippy and George in the children's programme Rainbow – all making him a cult figure with several generations of viewers.

Although others such as Peter Hawkins had already developed the Daleks' voices, Skelton became firmly associated with the staccato tones of the Time Lord's arch foe – best known for exhorting "Exterminate! Exterminate!" – for more than two decades, from 1967 to 1988. He was adept at changing the pitch and speed according to the emotions and, from 1966, voiced other Doctor Who creatures such as the Cybermen, the Monoids and the Krotons, as well as taking several on-screen roles.

Skelton followed Hawkins again to take over the voice of the yellow puppet Zippy (with an open zip for a mouth, occasionally closed by others when he became too hyperactive) from the second series of Rainbow in 1973, and later said he developed it as a cross between Margaret Thatcher and Ian Paisley. He continued until the award-winning, twice-weekly, lunchtime programme ended in 1992.

For all of his almost 1,000 episodes, he also voiced George, the pink hippopotamus puppet with prominent eyelashes. "I used to love it when I got a script and they'd have an argument," recalled Skelton, who switched fluently from the slightly manic tones of the domineering Zippy to the more measured strains of the shy George.

The two characters were featured alongside another puppet, the clumsy, brown bear Bungle (Stanley Bates in costume for most of the run), and the presenter – briefly David Cook, then, from 1973, Geoffrey Hayes. For many years, the singing group Rod, Jane and Freddy were featured. Skelton also scripted many episodes of Rainbow.

He was born in Nottingham, where his parents ran a sweet shop. While at Mundella grammar school, he attended Meadows boys' club, where he learned to box – becoming junior flyweight champion at the age of 12 – and started acting. Leaving school at 14, he joined the club's travelling theatre, but his parents then insisted that he learn a trade, so he went to college to study textiles. During national service in the RAF, he learned to fence and ran a theatre club.

The fencing enabled him to get a scholarship to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He then became an assistant stage manager with the repertory company in Oldham, Lancashire, before returning to Bristol Old Vic, where he had a role in the musical Salad Days, written for him by Julian Slade. There followed a spell at Oxford Playhouse and small roles in West End musicals such as Wild Thyme (1955), Oh! My Papa! (alongside Peter O'Toole, 1957) and Chrysanthemum (1959).

Skelton made his television debut by voicing various characters in the children's series A Rubovian Legend (1955-63), featuring the BBC Puppet Theatre, which was also in Toytown (1956-57), for which he voiced the stern and grumpy Mr Growser. He was also seen in front of the camera, taking roles in programmes such as Detective (1964), Z Cars (1968), Ivanhoe (1970), The Last of the Mohicans (1971) and The Bill (1989). He combined all of his talents on screen when he played the Mock Turtle in a lavish 1986 BBC production of Alice in Wonderland. He also took various roles in Take a Chance (1980-81), set in an actors' retirement home, for which he wrote two episodes.

Rainbow was axed by ITV when the producer, Thames Television, lost its franchise. Two 1990s revivals, with largely new casts, did not succeed, but the original gained a cult status.

In 2002 Skelton recorded a Top 20 single, a dance version of It's a Rainbow, as well as Zippy and George's version of the Weather Girls hit It's Raining Men for the dance compilation album Rainbow – Rave Up!

Five years later, he voiced Zippy and George for a puppet special on The Weakest Link and, in 2008, Zippy appeared in the first episode of the BBC drama Ashes to Ashes. Skelton also revived his Dalek voice for a 1999 Comic Relief parody, Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death.

On stage, his other roles included Mr Mossop in Trelawny (Prince of Wales theatre, 1972-73) and various roles in Nightingale (starring Sarah Brightman, Lyric theatre, Hammersmith, 1982-83).

Skelton is survived by his wife, Hilary Tooze, whom he married in 1959, and their daughters, Samantha and Eliza.